Black Friday Success: Thousands of Thermostats Sold on Utility Marketplaces

Black Friday may have been just what utilities and their customers needed after what has been a grueling 2020. From November 16^th to December 2^nd, over 20 utility clients participated in offering unparalleled deals on smart thermostats from Google, ecobee, Emerson, and Honeywell. Utility customers could purchase thermostats with generous manufacturer discounts on top of the everyday rebate offered by their utility. These stacked savings gave customers access to the best deals available - those that could not be found on Amazon or in other retail stores. The result was the sale of tens of thousands of thermostats and a successful Black Friday promotion for EFI, utilities, and their customers alike.

Impressive Increases in Traffic & Sales from Beginning to End

Utilities marketed to the promotion through a combination of emails, social media, and direct mail, each strategically sent to optimize sales from beginning to end. From day one, participating marketplaces saw impressive increases in both traffic and sales - not only on promotional thermostats, but on other energy saving products as well.

Within the first three days of the promotion, one marketplace nearly tripled their average weekly sales of lighting, water, power strip, and weatherization products!

At the tail end of the promotion, utilities sent FOMO (fear of missing out) emails to create a sense of urgency in customers. This resulted in large increases in traffic and conversion rates across marketplaces – some experiencing traffic increases upwards of 300% and peak conversion rates over 20%.

• Average 200% traffic increase across marketplaces throughout the promotion
• Spikes in sales of non-promotional items - one marketplace selling 3x their weekly average in just 3 days
• Peak conversion rates of over 20% at the tail end of the promotion

Record Breaking Thermostat Sales

Tens of thousands of thermostats were sold during the promotion, hitting EFI’s forecasted goal and surpassing 2019 Black Friday thermostat sales by 20%.

The deeply discounted Emerson Sensi was the top seller, followed by the ever-popular Google Nest Leaning thermostat. Shown here, the new Google Nest - a new product that was not on promotion and rebated only by utilities, was also a big hit.

ENERGY STAR Certified Savings

All thermostats included in the Black Friday promotion earned the ENERGY STAR label and are certified to deliver energy savings. Utilities who participated were not only to offer their customers upfront savings on a smart thermostat, but a way to help them save for years to come. 

On average, the smart thermostats sold during the promotion will save:

• Over 8.1 million annual kWh savings
• Over $850 thousand annual avoided energy costs
• Over 8.1 million annual avoided CO2 emissions (lbs)